The Silent Spare
by amnothuman
Summary: Your average beginning; someone prevents you from going into the grass. In the games, you always let them stop you. Everyone always simply expects you to inform your parents, to never lie, to never do anything childish... But truth is you are not perfect.
1. Chapter 1

THE SILENT SPARE

* * *

Seth peered with disinterest over the scene, watching Professor Birch get chased around by a puppy and crawling up a tree. It came up to his knee, couldn't he just kick it or something? He'd almost done the same thing to a small child of the same size earlier who'd told him it was dangerous to go out into the wilderness, but his mother had told him not to touch children. So he simply ignored the pipsqueak and went down the path, then ran forward when he'd heard shouting.

"Oh thank goodness you came! Please, take one of the pokeballs out from my bag!" the professor finally noticed him, eyes bright with some emotion or another. Seth wasn't good at deciphering those things. Faces, that is.

Nodding his head he took one and rolled it limply on to the ground. It broke open wide and he was afraid he'd broken it at first; maybe he hadn't rolled it gently enough-? Then a strange looking blue four legged fish emerged. It had features a bit like a tadpole with slimy skin and a webby tail, but also a bit like some sort of mammal with its feet splayed beneath it instead of out to the sides. With black eyes it looked about cutely and burbled, confused as to where it was. Seth simply pointed. Almost immediately it spotted the black hound, and gave a kreening battle cry, wobbling forward with its tail going back and forth.

The other pokemon lost interest in the professor's pants that it held in its mouth, and turned towards the new challenger to its turf, snarling.

The two circled, then leapt at one another, but the difference between them was that the black, uh, poochyena? seemed to have a clear idea of what to do next, and bowled the other one over. The tadpole-mammal thing glanced to Seth frantically for some sort of instructions while it struggled to avoid the nips and fierce teeth of the dog.

Seth made an aggressive punching motion into his hand. _Beat it up._

_Okay, _the little neophyte frog seemed to say, getting the notion Seth wasn't really the verbal type. It turned and did exactly what Seth seemed to have indicated- it punched the doggy in the teeth. The wild pokemon whined, licking at its maw, and let the frog crawl out from under it.

The frog-baby glanced at Seth again, but he was already moving forwardly swiftly. To the dog's utter surprise, it found itself getting picked up by the scruff. It twisted and tried to bite the boy who'd apprehended it, but he merely gave a short laugh and tossed it off into the bushes. _Go away. _He thought loudly at , that didn't seem to work; it gave a howl of rage and rushed back into battle.

Seth stood his ground and bared his teeth back at it and puffed out his chest and pointed his finger. _I mean it, go away stupid! _However, before he could see what effect his terrific display had, Birch's pokemon launched in front of him and pounded the little sucker into the ground to protect him. Damn it, but he didn't need protection. Why did everyone always try to molly-coddle him all the time?

The stupid dog had fainted now. If it had just taken a hint it'd be awake now, and able to enjoy awake things. Now it couldn't. What a moron.

"Oh thank you, so much!" Professor Birch slid down from the tree, and pulled up what was left of his pants over his pokeball-print underwear. "My, that pokemon really warmed up to you quite fast, I think you should keep Mudkip. Your name is Sev- err, Seth Green, right? Can't say I've ever really taken notice of you before."

His name was actually Emerald, not Green. Green sounded way better though. Seth just shrugged, glancing at Mudkip who sat next to his leg proudly. Did it like him? It was even harder to decipher its expression than for humans. He glanced in the bag curiously, wondering what other pokemon were there, but Birch seemed to have took that as him wanting to carry it and began to walk back to town without him. Glaring, he hitched it against his back and scurried off after him.

Birch laughed. "The quiet type, I see. That would explain why I don't see you around much. But you are around the same age as the other children in town, isn't that right? They are all going off on their pokemon journeys this year, my daughter Ruby and Norman's boy, uh… I actually don't know his name."

"I don't know either." Emerald offered, bored as he glanced at his shiny new but sadly empty pokeball, wondering how to return Mudkip to it.

"Oh, so you _can_ talk! I was beginning to wonder." He looked ready to speak more, but as they reached sight of the houses a girl rushed out from her house, almost slamming the door on a young man who slipped out behind her, looking annoyed at her anxiousness.

"Daddy!" she yelled excitedly, hugging him with a flying tackle that made the man wince and smile at the same time. "What took you? You were gone a long time and you're late to get me my pokemon."

"Our pokemon, I'd like one too." the mysterious other boy folded his arms, though he glanced briefly and curiously at Seth and the mudkip trailing behind the two. "I just moved in, I'm Brendan."

"Oh, you must be our new neighbor! Well, come right on in to my lab." he opened the door with a key, and swung it wide open for the group to file in one by one. Then he stepped in after them. Seth half expected it to end like a bad horror movie, for the door to close shut and the lights to go off and for Birch to pull out a chainsaw, but nothing nearly so exciting happened. He felt disappointed when all that happened was the man pulled out three pokedexes from the bag and placed down three balls, and released pokemon from two of them.

Mudkip raced towards the two excitedly, but the new pokemon that appeared reacted very differently towards it. One, a fluffy orange bird chirped and tried to peck at Mudkip like it was food, the other a strange green upright gecko glanced indifferently. Hey wait, he recognized that pokemon, it was a treecko! He definitely wanted that one, they were cool-

"I'll take the treecko. Come here Slick." Brendan immediately stated, and Seth frowned slightly. "It has a double advantage to a mudkip's later forms." he stated as if to clarify, although it just made Seth feel more confused. What did that have to do with anything?

"Oooh, it's so cute!" Ruby cooed, looking at the chick pokemon. "I want the Torchic, although that Mudkip isn't bad either."

"That's his, though, isn't it?" Brendan glanced at Seth, who glanced down at Mudkip, who glanced down at Seth's foot lovingly and rubbed up against it. _What the hell? We just met… why does it like me already? _He stared, baffled.

Seeing Ruby eye Mudkip, and noting how girly the alternative, the bird looked, he immediately nodded his head yes. No way was he getting stuck with Torchic. It was cute looking, Seth disdainfully viewed it, like being cute was a sin. She seemed happy enough with it, anyway, she should keep it.

"All of those are good choices." the professor smiled. "You can register their nicknames officially by inputting it into your pokedex. You should also input your own names; they'll act like official trainer's licenses."

"We should test out our pokemon by battling them." Brendan folded his arms, smiling slightly. "You up to it?"

"Oh, I'd love to!" Ruby cut in front of Seth, smirking devilishly. It was only then it occurred to Seth that Brendan might have been talking to him, though the earlier comment about mudkip's weaknesses might have been a hint. "Blaze and I will roast your little snake!"

"It's not a snake, it's a lizard!" Brendan hissed flatly, narrowing his eyes. "Go Slick! Pound!"

The gecko looked slightly nervous at this turn of events, no longer disinterested it looked towards the Torchic fearfully as it reluctantly stepped forward.

Seth glanced confusedly towards the Professor. _Do I battle too? _He pointed to Mudkip. Birch shook his head, guessing correctly at what he meant. "Don't worry Seth. You already got to battle with your little girl; you should take the opportunity to sneak out while these two are distracted and get a head start!"

_Mudkip is a GIRL? _he almost fell over in shock.

"Daaddd!" Ruby whined. "I heard that!" Then a moment later when Blaze fell over, fainted. "Hey, no fair I was distracted!"

"I still win." Brendan chuckled softly, then returned Slick to his ball and grabbed his pokedex. "I'll see you guys later." he waved and walked out.

"What a dweeb!" she tapped her foot in annoyance, then glanced at Blaze, who had the most original name in the universe for a fire type apparently. "I know! Me and you could team up and beat that lug!" she pointed at Seth who truly wanted no part of it.

He shook his head, grabbed his pokedex, and before she could protest, well, protest too loud that is, he ran out the door, Mudkip running at his side. Maybe he should give it a nickname like the others, but, well… he still couldn't get over the fact his pokemon was a girl. With a look of horror, he wondered if that was the reason it liked him so easily. Seth hoped not!

The other lurched out the door, and he was the one now left behind. He didn't mind much though. Those two could play rival to one another, he'd just be Seth.

"BE SURE TO TALK TO YOUR MOTHER BEFORE YOU LEAVE!" the professor shouted out the door, then glanced at the straggler. "You too, of course."

Let's think about that... Heck no. If she knew he was going off on his own she'd never let him leave! He nodded his head, pretending to agree with Birch, then walked off leisurely through town. His mom was always trying to keep an eye on him and was probably going to be really ticked when she realized he'd slipped out of his room, and, later on, that he'd decided to ditch going to that school for 'special boys with mental problems' and went on a journey instead. Freedom, or men with pens and ink blots and repetitive boring questions? He definitely chose freedom.


	2. Chapter 2

THE (USUALLY) SILENT SPARE

* * *

From an early age, Seth had been unusually quiet, slow to pick up on speech and other things, and had grown slower than others of his age. In truth, while he looked the same age as Ruby and Brendan, Seth Emerald was several years older.

Going through the tall grass was dangerous, but Seth had another, very unfortunate quality. From an early age, he was totally fearless. On several occasions he'd almost been eaten by swarms of pokemon or wild Seviper as a child; it was merely luck now that he had a pokemon at his side, for he'd planned to leave home after making his escape and never turn back anyway.

It was this sheer lack of caution that caused him now to walk straight through a field of shroomish eating rotting compost. What a pleasant smell, but it was a nice direct route to city. Mudkip barked at him and planted her feet, looking up at him, but he merely blinked at her and continued on, his comparatively tall legs easily over-stepping her short self.

Beedy eyes turned around to stare at him, no discernable expression but obviously it had been disturbed from its meal, for it stopped. Many shroomish stilled, and sent out a funny gray-yellow powder bursting into the air. He remembered being told by his mother that no, they weren't snowflakes and you weren't supposed to lick them, and how unpleasant it had tasted when he'd gone and done it anyway.

He stepped away and held his breath while poor Mudkip tried to hide from the powders by his side by sticking her head up his pants. Seth glanced at the slimy, cold tadpole as the shroomish began to approach, slowly inching forward, sending little white mushroom tendrils out, most likely to try to absorb energy from their bodies. Mercilessly he stomped his foot down and smashed on them, but there were too many and some began to wind around his foot. From his backside, some found Mudkip, who gave a whimper and tried to climb away, but when she couldn't glanced up at him for instructions.

In response, he jerked his head and violently kicked a shroomish into a tree, and grinned, hitting his fist against his palm. Go get 'em!

Still, Mudkip looked reluctant, and tried to look for a way to leap through the ground before tackling a shroomish in a weak point around the circle, only two shroomish thick. The white that tangled around her paws made her look sickly, and soon Seth found it made one feel sickly as well as they dug into his skin. Scowling he smacked some loose, but Mudkip wasn't fairing quite so well, getting pulled between two shroomish and 'shared' between them as a snack.

His pokedex beeped suddenly. "_Shroomish, the mushroom pokemon, will feed on decaying meat and vegetation. If it senses danger, it will release poisonous spores with a paralyzing affect if inhaled or eaten. It adores the damp_."

Indeed, they seemed to absolutely love Mudkip, the water pokemon and her trainer looking less like threats and more like prey items at the moment. He thought about catching one and causing confusion, but had no pokeballs on him. Besides, they could beat a stinking plant without resorting to dirty tricks, couldn't they? Quickly he scooped up Mudkip and leaped over the pile, stepping on one of their head's on accident and getting a sprayful of powder for it. Choking, he stumbled over a bush and inhaled, letting go of Mudkip as she went skidding.

His head swimming, his entire body felt foggy and hard to lift, the paralyzing spores already having a bit of an affect. Stumbling up on to his two feet he tried to balance himself, but fell over dazedly, blinking. The little fungus-pod creatures marched forward at an insect's pace, and Mudkip shook herself, looking much happier and better to be free of their leeching, but gazed worried at her trainer who struggled to move. He shook his head. Don't worry, he meant to say, except that it seemed to be up to her now.

Gazing fiercely she burbled a great cry and launched herself forward, tackling one and sending it sailing through the air, tail-whipping another causing it to close its eyes for a moment and then bite it firmly and shook, breaking it into wet greenish pieces. It wasn't an incredibly complex animal, and had a spongy internal appearance with a squishy middle that probably housed the most complex parts of the nervous system. He could see the purple poison sacks as it broke open from the top.

This caused all the others to give pause, shaking- but not in fear. Furiously they released more spores, and Mudkip tucked her head against her belly and the ground, running from the shroomish and trying to avoid their attacks like the plague as they launched a new offensive.

Finally, she turned towards one end of them and bashed her head threw, tipping a few almost like dominoes, but they were a bit too round and sturdy for such to really work effectively. Running around, she made sporadic attacks, and Seth slowly made his way up to his feet, stabilizing himself a bit and inching forward. Looking at the one that had been torn to pieces, he experimentally stuck his finger out and dipped into the wet inside and raised it up to lick at it. Hmm… tasted like water that had funny steak swimming in it.

Mudkip split another one open, and danced in the juices, seeming to enjoy the other's fearful faces now as well as the wet. When Seth slammed his foot down right behind one, causing it to startle and make the others look at him and his grinning face, they took two glances between the two and decided it was time that they left. Rapidly as they could, the mushroom pokemon scurried into the leaf-litter, hiding themselves.

He laughed, then immediately silenced as Mudkip trembled and collapsed to the floor. Seth worriedly pondered if she was dead, kneeling down, but decided that the faint beating motion he saw in her blue chest past her silently transparent skin was probably her healthy heart and not alien worm babies. Grabbing her and heading off, he went to town, not pausing to give a second look at Brendan who encountered on the way, who stared oddly while trying to catch a ralts with a zigzagoon with some kid.

Going straight to the pokemon center, he placed Mudkip there at the desk and stared wordlessly at the nurse.

"Oh my! Would you like me to heal your injured pokemon? Let me take them, it will only be a second." she hummed, not even waiting for him to nod before taking his mudkip and placing her on a healing pad and pressing a button. Light radiated across the immature frog, who seemed to squeeze her eyes even tighter shut at the action unconsciously. "It works on the same energy principle as the pokeball, using it to revitalize as opposed to contain and keep at equilibrium. It's not perfect, of course, there are still diseases and maladies we can't cure."

He nodded his head, but she didn't seem to notice, chattering on. "Like the dreaded pokerus or Meowth AIDS. Erm, you can let your mother explain that one to you, but anyway, you should be sure to be a lot more careful out in the fields if this is your only pokemon. Wild pokemon could kill and eat you, and I'm not kidding about that."

Bored, he watched someone wheel in a wurmple in a trough. Injuries were boring, he decided. Now being eaten, that sounded mildly cool, he supposed. Seth froze when he thought he heard his mother's voice in another room, though, sounding angry.

"Hey, um, you have computers here?"

"Oh, yes we do." she chirped up, happy to have more to say. "You can store items, pokemon, withdraw them, talk to people-"

"Doesn't that cost money? So it'd be for official business or something." Seth glanced at Mudkip, who was slowly stirring.

"Oh, yeah. Like talking to a pokemon professor or a league official, I guess. Occasionally we get kids phoning in home or reports of cheating or abuse filed or a fake or in error trainer ID, people who want to trade long-distance, etc. When there is an error in the system we can't fix it here at the center, but we can send a report to higher authorities in the league to change their own systems." the nurse paused to blow bubblegum, and as she did he thought he heard someone coming and his mother's voice go out.

Quickly, he leaned over and grabbed Mudkip. "Okay, sounds good! See you later."

"Hey, wait, Mudkip isn't ready yet-" seeing he was quickly scurrying out of the building, she finished. "don't do any battling for a few days, okay?"

He nodded his head without turning around to look back, and got out the door just in time to hear a loud "Is a Seth Emerald here?"

It seemed he wouldn't be going to another pokemon center anytime soon, and going to the gym here was probably out of the question as wasn't he Brendan's dad? But the one next over was a possibility… by the time he got there search parties would probably be called off. Maybe. He really didn't know.

Earlier, he'd mugged a kid after beating up all his wurmple and cascoon. It probably sucked to have those as a starter, but he wouldn't know since he didn't suck enough to even touch a wurmple. But now that he had money, he could spend some time at the mart buying stuff.

- - - - x x x

"Give over the Goods!" a man snarled, holding a knife to a fat man's belly.

Emerald screamed with delight, arms up in the air as he gaped. That guy looked like a pirate! A real life pirate like the kind that lived on candy boxes! Although what was he doing in a forest instead of a box? "Oh my gawd I wanna hug you!"

"What the hell?" the man blinked, put off guard by this bizarre behavior. He didn't get long, however, as Seth launched himself at him and tackled him to the ground, squeezing him. The fat man rolled away as the 'pirate' man lost his proper grip on his knife, and looked profusely thankful as he scurried to hide behind Emerald's one and only pokemon, Mudkip. He'd gotten a lot stronger recently, err, she, he kept forgetting she was a girl. Anyway she hadn't lost a battle yet, although the most recent trainer in the woods had looked pretty put off when told his challenger was fighting him with a single pokemon and asked if it was some kind of joke. Seth didn't even know how to catch a pokemon except that you stuffed them in a pokeball at the end, and anyway he spent all his money on necessities so he hadn't gone to a trainer's market yet. "Get off of me!"

"Seth, you lunatic, stay out of this." Brendan yelled, looking worried. Seth didn't really understand why, though. Maybe he interpreted his expression wrong? He was probably just jealous he didn't get to tackle the pirate.

The mean pirate kicked Emerald in the face, and while he rubbed his nose the man backed away, huffing and standing up looking like a fair bit of his dignity was just barely salvaged from ruin. "You punks, I'll teach you to mess with Team Aqua. If it's a pokemon battle you want, it's a battle you'll have! Go poochyena!"

Seth blinked, twisting his head at what looked familiar to him. Hey, wasn't it that ... mmm... you know. Thing. Puppy he met? It was nice to reunion with it! He wondered if it remembered him and if it was a bit smarter this time, but before he could ask it how it was doing Slick knocked it out. He glared at the treecko, which glanced indifferently towards him, obviously sharing its trainer's opinion he was nutty but ultimately harmless and not worth its time. Even if he had managed to get one gym badge already which was unlikely and spent all his time training it, it was only a water pokemon. It didn't stand a chance against a well trained grass one with an excellent trainer.

Emerald supposed his question about whether Poochyena got any smarter was answered by the fact it didn't manage to run away before getting knocked out. Oh well. The delinquent boy zoned out, some chubby man in a suit thanking Brendan over and over once he managed to defeat another one of the pirate's pokemon and the pirate ran off. Now that the pirate was gone life was boring. He wanted his pirate back, and quietly began to walk after him.

Come on Mudkip, he thought to his pokemon, beckoning with his hand as he began to stalk the guy while Brendan got some sort of fancy yellow ball for a reward. It wasn't long before he saw some sign or track as to where the guy had went; a muddy footprint. He sped up, running while his pokemon companion frantically tried to keep up, grinning. This was going to be fun. He wondered if the guy needed any candy like a cardboard box pirate, Emerald had lots, he'd spent all his money on necessities after all. Occasionally he dropped a piece from his pocket and Mudkip would steal it up from the dirt.

He saw the man duck into a house, and rolled up his green sleeves before giving pause. Wait, was that a public building he was allowed to go into? Or was it where that pirate guy lived? Oh well he'd just wait outside-

"Let go of my darling Peeko!" an older man roared, and crashing could be heard. The pirate man emerged from the door, holding a wingull, a seagull pokemon.

"I'm holding it hostage now, so nobody go chasin' after me, you hear? Or I'll pluck these feathers and this seabird's belly till nothing's left but a red sopping mess!" hmm, the pirate didn't sound very friendly Seth mused, approaching. The man looked startled to see his stalker, and turned around and ran, knowing better than to argue with a lunatic.

Seth ran after, excited at the idea of a chase, mostly because he never got to play those games as a kid. "Come back mister!"

"No way am I going to jail, kid!" the man leered. "You run pretty doggedly for an idiot. Ouch!" Peeko bit him.

Everyone always called him an idiot, so he had no response to that, not even a shrug because it was hard to make those while you were running and had to watch where you were going. Finally, the man tripped and plummeted out of sight with a thud, the bird in his hands literately going and flying off into the sky. Seth stopped, and peered curiously as he heard a yell.

The man had fallen into a silcoon's pit, a silky den of sticky, gluey foul webbing that was intended to trip up and deter enemies before they could find the animal within. Sometimes a wurmple would make several false dens of string shot before settling down to a final one to evolve in peace in order to confuse enemies and make them spend more time on the false ones. The smallest and most nimble of taillow could get through it, while most other predators were well deterred. Slakoth albeit rarely predatory was a notable exception, however, cutting through easily with its claws and already going through life so slowly being slowed more meant nothing. One had already reached inside, and was grumpy to be disturbed while it ate its bug meal. Lifting its monkish head it snorted at the entangled pirate who squirmed to get loose, his only pokemon a fainted one.

It made Seth sleepy just watching as the pokemon inched forward to attack the struggling man, and he yawned and sat down while his own pokemon caught up to him, finally managing to leap over a very large log with its little legs that scratched unhappily at the sides and scrambled down beside him. Mudkip glanced at him, hopeful for instruction, but Seth had a long day and just, yawn, wanted a nap…

Ow! Standing up sharply, he glared at Mudkip who'd bit him on the ear. She looked unabashed, perhaps picking up some of his disobedience towards the authorities in his life. Looking around, he realized there was a potential battle right in front of them, and grinned at the poor pirate dude who needed to be rescued. The man's face had gotten covered in wrapping and he could no longer make a single sound. Good job Mudkip, scare off that slakoth! He pointed excitedly.

"Kiii!" Mudkip launched forward, ducking under the sticky wrappings and launching into the sloth's face, brutally slamming down against the other again and again. The sloth retaliated, eventually, with a whack of its arm.

"Sloooo." it yawned, and Mudkip had to fight off the urge to yawn along with it. Seth slammed his foot against the ground to keep himself awake, then realized he had something his mother always complained about keeping him up. SUGAR! Digging into his bag, he popped some candy in his mouth and threw some towards Mudkip, who burbled with delight and launched forward, gobbling it up.

Slakoth paused, looking hard at the spot where the candy had been for a very long time, then it looked up, very hopeful. "Laaaalala?" its voice changed to a slightly higher pitch, and sounded almost musical now, though it was still too slow, at least it was not sleep inducing.

"Muuuud." Mudkip replied, sitting and looking up at her trainer now. "Kip?"

"Laaaaa?"

"Mud." "Laaaa." "Kip." "-aaa" "Mud." "-aaaa" "Kip." "Loo." "Mud." "-oooaaa." "Kip?"

Seth stared, stiffling a yawn at the mudkip song before finally realizing the reason they weren't battling is that they were asking for candy for Slakoth. Shrugging, sure it would be alright since a pokemon like that could stand to be a little hyper, he dug another out of his bag and offered it to the stinky sloth. The sloth sat fully upright and took it into its mouth, slobbering all over Seth's hand as it slowly moved it in and swallowed. Closing its eyes, it looked content with the world.

Emerald went forward and cut the funny man loose from where he was hanging. The man struggled to break free from the rest of his bindings and to get the glue off his mouth. "Mudkip, where do you want to take the pirate?"

Mudkip glanced towards the city they saw not too far off in the distance. Emerald hummed, deliberating with himself, then smiled and grabbed the pirate man and swung him over his shoulder. Geeze the guy was heavy. He heard a muffled yell, but didn't really get what that was about.

"A pirate has got to have a boat, right?" he looked about. "Where do you think he keeps his boat, Mudkip?"

"Muuuu." his pokemon looked at him with what to him was an indiscernible expression, eyes curved wide and upward, with mouth's edges tilted downward.

Slakoth opened its eyes and looked at him being slowly moving over. It looked like it wanted to come along? Maybe that's how one caught pokemon. They walked up to you and asked to be caught. He dug in his box of candy, looking for a pokeball, and bopped it on the guy's head. It went in with a flash. Humming happily to himself, he went towards the last place he'd seen a boat; at the bird Peeko's house.

The elderly fellow wasn't there, and neither was the bird. He set the pirate down and got out his box of candy, before ripping off the bindings around his mouth.

"Holy shit, what the fuck, man, what the fuck was with all that chasing and then bringing me back here for?" taking a rattled breath, the guy continued with foul nonsense. "You could have just left me to rot there, and let that Slakoth eat me. They get hungry for energy when they're about ready to evolve. Thanks for that, I guess." he spat. "Suppose you're turning me in now to the guy I stole the bird from, well guess what, I don't have the stinking bird anymore!"

"I don't care." Seth shrugged. The man stopped, peering at him strangely.

"Who the hell are you, anyway?"

"I'm Seth! Have some candy!" he tried to shove candy in the guy's mouth, but he sputtered and rocked away from it and managed to taste only one piece.

"You are fucking insane. I don't want your drugged candy, kid!" the guy swore some more, and Seth cocked his head curiously to listen before retracting the candy, unsure if he'd heard right. The guy didn't want candy? How, how was that possible for anyone to not want CANDY?

"It's not drugged. I hate medicine. Where's your pirate ship? Is it that one?" he glanced at the boat over there. "I always wanted to go on a pirate ship."

"Are you… kidnapping me or trying to steal from me? Great. Look, kid, I don't have no boat! I got nothing valuable, except my fainted pokemon. It's a loaner, anyway, so take that if you must and leave me alone!"

Seth scoffed. "I do not want Puppy, he's stupid. You keep him, thanks for offering though. How can you not have a boat, though? All pirates have boats."

"I'm not a pirate! I'm a member of Team Aqua, the water team and if they find you joking around with one of their own like this they'll kill you!" the man threatened. "Let me go now and maybe I can convince Archie otherwise!"

"How can a devotee of water have no boat? That's stupid." Seth grew bored now, and absentmindedly popped a piece of candy into his mouth, and gave another one to his loyal Mudkip who bubbled in delight. Leaning back against the grass, he soaked up the sun and prepared to take a snooze.

"Hey, wait, are you just going 'ta leave me here like this?"

"Why?"

"Well, you can't!"

"Why?" Seth twisted his head childishly.

"Crud, you really are just a kid aren't you…" his eyes took on a look of sympathy for a moment. "Look, kid, go back home. Training isn't the life for you. They don't make people take psychological evaluations before handing them weapons, that'd be defeating the point, but, get out of it while you still can."

"Why?"

"Freaking gawd!" he rocked in frustration. "Would you please just let me out, then?"

Seth nodded his head 'OK', and bounced over, ripping off the bindings. Although in many ways underdeveloped, he was decently strong. The man stood up, and glanced worriedly towards the house as if expecting someone to pop out from it at any moment. "Alright, thanks, uh, I got to go now, so I'll see you later."

Looking awkward, but hopeful that this would be the strange and anticlimactic end of it all, the fake pirate turned around and began to move away. Seth shuffled after him, and the man stopped, narrowing his eyes and shooting a sharp look at him.

"Wanna be a real pirate?" Seth grinned, a gunk of candy in his teeth.

"What? No, no kid, I said LATER, later. Leave me alone!" but Seth had already grabbed his arm and tugged carelessly, jumping towards the boat at the house with a grin. The man stumbled, pulled back for half a second, then stopped, as if thinking better about it and resigning himself to the torture.

"Okay, okay…" he said wearily and with a touch of fear as he was pulled into the boat and realized what was likely going to happen. Putting a hand over his eyes, he moaned something about his boss going to kill him and that he was going to be accused of kidnapping a child. Seth didn't care, turning on the ignition and playing around with the wheel and everything around, unanchoring the boat and finally rocking it with glee as he saw it start to move.

"Whee!" he spazzed in his seat, as his faithful Mudkip jumped into his lap and made a purring noise. As the ship went slowly off, and gradually picked up speed while it drifted away from the shore, a familiar old man and his bird, along with Brendan, arrived at the scene. Brendan's eyes widened as he recognized Seth and he shouted, while the old man wheezed pitifully, running to the edge and joining in the yelling. He had no idea what that was about, anyway.

"Congratulations." came a dry tone. "You stole a boat."

"No I didn't. Finder's keepers it was just laying there." Seth stuck out his tongue. "I'm gonna go on a voyage for treasure."

"Whatever you say." came a tired but mildly amused tone as the man stared up at the clouds. "I don't suppose you have some potions? My pokemon is still fainted."

He raised up two fingers, then one, then three, then paused, staring at his hand and trying to remember if he had any at all. Then he finally just curled his hand into a fist and tucked it down. Using one hand to steer and another to ruffle around, he grabbed his box of candy and held it out. Distasteful of the sweets, the other reluctantly took it and ruffled through it until he pulled out a spray bottle successfully.

"Ah." awkward silence ensued, well, not quiet silence. He could hear a pokeball releasing and some squirting, and smelled a funny 'chemically-clean'-like smell that pokemon centers tended to have.

xxx

He really wasn't sure what to think of the kid, gazing at his too-trustingly turned back, he considered killing them right then and there. Seth didn't even know he still had a knife, or if he did was totally oblivious to it. But, gazing at the pokemon at the child's side, he knew they protected him at least. The strange frog-like pokemon stared at him, as if warning him to try anything. It was kind of amusing how it had attached to him, but then again, not so much when he considered how it had easily defeated him. Sigh.

With luck, Benjamin thought as he leaned back, the kid would get lost and grow bored, and decide to give the boat over to him where he could drive it to some place quiet and make a get away. A part of him liked Seth's spunk, but he truly thought the child was insane. Nobody would last long like that. Honestly, he called his poochyena 'Puppy', and fearlessly stared at wild pokemon and a man who looked like he was about to try to kill him. Actually, that summed up his first impression well. Totally fearless.

"Where we going, fearless?"

Seth paused. "My name isn't fearless, it's Seth! I'm looking for treasure."

"Yes, genius, but where?"

The boy stilled, giving a long pause that uncomfortably gave the impression it was the first time the thought had occurred to him. Then, the other bounced up and down with such energy he was afraid the boat would capsize despite being decently large. "An undiscovered island!"

"Muuuud!" his pokemon burbled joyfully, rubbing her head up against the boy.

It seemed they'd be together for awhile. Never thought he'd be babysitting, but Ben thought it might be an okay break from the nasty work he was in. He was overdue for a vacation, anyway, and it seemed like nobody was going to watch this kid and try to keep him from getting killed.

Pirate Ben?

That was kind of catchy.

xxx 


End file.
